F-words foul up the process of getting a FICO score

The FOIA should not be confused with FICO, FCRA and FACTA

Dear Credit Score Report,
I've
been told that you can use the Freedom of Information Act to obtain your FICO
score because it is your info that is being held and used against you. Is this
true? If not, it should be! --
Steve

Hey Steve,
Too many f-words may have fouled up your understanding of
the process of getting a FICO score.

The f-words I'm referring to aren't particularly rude, but
they can be confusing: It's not the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that offers access to your FICO scores, but
rather the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and the Fair and Accurate Credit
Transaction Act (FACTA), which amended the FCRA in 2003. Experts agree that the
problem could be all those acronyms. "The reader may be thinking of the
Fair Credit Reporting Act, or FCRA," says Chi Chi Wu, staff attorney for
the National Consumer Law Center in Boston. It's the FCRA that offers access to
your FICO scores, although not for free. "Under the FCRA, you have the
right to get a credit score, but you need to pay for it. Also, you don't have a
right to your FICO scores specifically," Wu says.

The Freedom of Information Act, meanwhile, gives the public
greater access to data held by federal agencies. "FOIA applies only to the
government. All of its requirements fall
upon government 'agencies,' a defined term under the law," says Steven
Katz, spokesman for credit bureau
TransUnion.
That means credit bureaus -- which are also referred to as credit reporting agencies -- aren't covered by FOIA. "Credit reporting companies
are private entities, or publicly traded companies, not government agencies
(despite being called credit reporting agencies or credit scoring agencies), so
the FOIA does not apply to credit reports
or credit scores," says Rod
Griffin, director of public education with credit bureau Experian, in an e-mail.
Others in the credit reporting industry confirm that fact. "There is
nothing in the law that requires credit bureaus to provide a score for no
cost," says Norm Magnuson, spokesman for the Consumer Data Industry
Association, the trade group for the bureaus. FICO, creator of the credit score that bears the company's name, is a publicly traded company rather
than a government entity. That means it's also exempt from the FOIA.

So if you'd like to get a copy of your FICO credit score,
you'll need to try another approach. That's where the FCRA and FACTA can help. "Consumer
reporting, including credit reporting, is governed by the FCRA and the FACT Act,
which provide for access to the information maintained by the national credit
reporting companies," Griffin says.

Under those acts, you have the right to get free copies of your credit report from each of the three major U.S. credit bureaus -- Equifax,
Experian and TransUnion -- every year and, in turn, purchase your credit
scores. "The credit bureau can give you any generic credit score," Wu
says. "So, for example, you can get your FICO score based on your Equifax
and TransUnion credit reports, but not your Experian report -- you can only get
your VantageScore based on your Experian report," she says, referring to
the scoring model developed by the three bureaus. (Experian stopped offering FICO-based scores
after a falling out between the two companies in 2009.) The Equifax and
TransUnion-based FICO scores are also available for $15.95 each at myFICO.com. You may also be able
to request a free FICO score from your bank or credit union.

While you may view those scores as tools lenders can wield
against you, the credit reporting industry views them differently. "We
tend to think of scores as being a benefit to most consumers because they give
access to credit in a timely manner," the CDIA's Magnuson says.

As the credit scores most often used by lenders, FICO scores
may soon become more readily available. The major Wall Street reform bill,
which takes effect in 2011, will further improve access to your credit scores. "Starting
sometime next year, the new Dodd-Frank Act will give consumers the right to
automatically receive a credit score when a creditor rejects them or makes them
pay a higher price for credit. The score will be in the legally required notice
that the creditor must provide, and the consumer actually will get the score
that the creditor relied upon -- for free," Wu says. "It's a big
improvement, and should help consumers get more information about their FICO
scores."

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